Thoughts on my smoked beer recipe?

[rhys333]

Hey guys,
I'd like to try a smoked beer this weekend, something light and not too heavy with a hint of smoke to it. I'm not shooting for a specific style here, but I thought it'd be neat to give the beer a hint of smoky appearance from darker malts and perhaps some wheat or rye for haze. I have lightly-peated malt on hand and will be using that. Here 's what I'm thinking so far:

SMOKED BEER
83% MO
6% C40
5% Rye (or wheat)
3.5% Pale UK Chocolate
2.5% Lightly-peated malt
Warrior @ 60 to 30 IBU
US-05

Really appreciate your input!

 

[SpeedYellow]

Many folks, me included, don't find peat malt to be a great choice for any beer. I think it works in stouts, but many don't even accept that. So be careful that this is what you really want.

Personally, I smoke my own malts, and typically have a smoked beer on tap at any moment. Yum.

 

[rhys333]

Many folks, me included, don't find peat malt to be a great choice for any beer. I think it works in stouts, but many don't even accept that. So be careful that this is what you really want.

Personally, I smoke my own malts, and typically have a smoked beer on tap at any moment. Yum.

Thanks for the advice. If I were to ask the LHBS to switch it for me, which malt should I ask for? If the peat is all they have, guess I'll have to just go with it though.

 

[Jonkl]

Those people are crazy. Peated malt is awesome, and having it last in the grist at 2.5% is a fine way to experiment with it.

It does have a tendency to add a character that many palates register as additional hop bitterness, so you may want to adjust your IBUs accordingly. I wouldn't go too crazy - maybe drop down to ~25IBU or so. Or you could bump up the crystal to offset, as well.

As for the rye/wheat question, it sort of depends, I think. If you have a concern about peated malt being too strong, maybe balancing it with sweetness of wheat is a better idea. If you're a fan of peaty single-malts, punching up that profile with some spicy rye might be the ticket. (Honestly, I want to try that now.)

Whichever you choose, I say go for it.

 

[rhys333]

Thanks for the advice Jonkl, that helps a lot. I might up the crystal malt a percent or two as you suggest rather than lowering IBUs. I'll stick with the rye too. I wanted more of it in there, but unfortunately the 5% amount is all I have on hand at the moment. Somehow, the thought of spicy rye seems to make sense when I think 'smoke in a glass'. I was tempted to add a 25 minute spicy noble hop addition too, but decided to let the peat malt do the heavy lifting.

 

[SpeedYellow]

Those people are crazy. Peated malt is awesome, and having it last in the grist at 2.5% is a fine way to experiment with it...
.

The disdain for peat-smoked malt stems from the reality that it's not used for traditional rauchbiers, which use hardwood, specifically beech. And very few (any?) commercial smoked beers use it. And if it's overdone, then it's really really bad. Certain ingredients get a bad reputation for a reason!